The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Developers and publishers of computer program applications (“apps”) often may use advertising in apps as one way to generate revenue, including in the case of apps designed to run on mobile devices. For example, a mobile app developer may program an app such that advertisements (“ads”) occasionally are displayed in one or more graphical user interfaces of the app when the app is installed and executed by a mobile device user. The ads may present a user with product and service offers and other information that may be of interest to the user and, in exchange for the display of the ads in an app, the mobile app developer or other entity responsible for the app may receive compensation from advertisers according to known advertising compensation models.
One approach used for displaying ads in an app is for an app developer to programmatically identify one or more particular events that may occur during execution of the app to serve as a trigger point or condition for the display of an ad. For example, a developer may program an app such that ads are displayed in response to a user launching the app, opening an in-app menu, or browsing an in-app store. However, this approach is restrictive in that app developers and publishers may be unable to finely-tune the display of ads in an app to match a user's interaction with the app. For example, a developer or publisher of a game-related app may desire that an ad be displayed in response to some, but not all, occurrences of a particular in-game event (e.g., in response to some portion of occurrences of a user failing to complete a level in the game). Further, an app developer or publisher may desire over time to modify the relationship and frequency of ad displays with respect to particular app events, but doing so may be difficult using current approaches due to logistical problems of re-programming and re-deploying an app to a large number of users.